If you were your own employer, would you be entirely satisfied with the day’s work you have done today?

At the end of the day, it matters little what others think of you; what’s important is what you think about yourself. As you reflect on your day’s work, ask yourself, “Have I given 100 percent of my time and talents today? If this were my company, would I like it to be filled with hundreds of other people just like me, or would I prefer to hire individuals with a little more initiative?” When you have become the kind of person you would like to work with or have working for you, you aren’t far from the day when you will own the company — or at least become a valuable part of it. Most important, you can sleep soundly at night, serene in the knowledge that you have done your best, that you have earned your pay, and that you have met the standards of performance you require of yourself.

Emotions are sometimes strange, volatile, and unpredictable. They do not always respond to logic and reason. They do, however, respond to action. If you have occasional feelings of loneliness, discouragement, or discontentment, the best way to kill such negative emotions is to work them to death. Almost nothing is as bad as it first seems, and there’s nothing like a hard day’s work to put everything in proper perspective. When you begin to feel negative emotions, dwelling on your misfortunes only makes you feel worse. Do your best to put them out of your mind and think about more positive, constructive things. Physical labor can help. Choose a task that doesn’t require a great deal of concentration, and then focus on accomplishing the task at hand.

When you begin to think and grow rich, you will observe that riches begin with a state of mind, with definiteness of purpose, with little or no hard work.

A friend is one who knows all about you and still respects you.

A true friend is a priceless gift. When we reveal our hopes, our dreams, and our deepest secrets to others, and they still like and respect us, such people are to be cherished. All too often, the only reason others wish to spend time with us — to be our friends — is because of what they perceive we can do for them, not the other way around.

A real friendship is reciprocal, one in which each friend benefits equally. You can earn the friendship of others by being the kind of person who deserves respect from friends. When others look up to you, it should make you even more conscious of the responsibility you have to treat them with the same respect you would like them to afford you.

Ability is greater than money because it can be neither lost nor stolen.

If you study the lives of very successful people, you will find that they rarely climb to the top of their business or profession and stay there. They often climb to the top and fall to the bottom several times during their careers, but they know that the one thing that got them where they are — their ability — is always there to help them reach the top again. Your ability is the one thing that you own exclusively. No one can ever take it from you.

Before worrying about how to get more pay, try thinking how you can do a better job and you may not need to worry.